Atelier Alter Completes the Spaceship-Like Qujing History Museum

Located in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan is Qujing, which just got a stunning new addition to its architectural addition this year in the shape of the Qujing History Museum. Although its collections date back 40 million years, the museum’s design is thoroughly modern and monumental — an “anti-gravity” gradated feature of the building juts out over the front plaza, mirroring the staircase below and paying homage to the long history of Chinese civilization. Upon ascending the stairs, museum-goers reach a concrete plateau where they enter the building through the central mass. Inspired by two of the area’s most prominent archaeological finds — the Longyan Tablet and a 40 million-year-old fish fossil — the building’s draping facades channel the calligraphy of the tablet that marked the invention of a prominent calligraphic style.